I represent the first generation who, when we were born, the television was now a permanent fixture in our homes. When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson.
Read the full "Pre-ramble"

Monday, August 01, 2016

This Week in Television History: August 2016 PART I

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history,the more that fact and legend become intertwined.It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

Sonny and Cher had been singing and performing comedy
in nightclubs for more than a decade. They released several hit records in the
1960s, most notably "I Got You, Babe," before launching their show.
The series rated well and showcased future comedy stars, including Teri Garr
and Steve Martin.

Despite the show's popularity, the couple suffered
marital problems and announced in the spring of 1974 that they were divorcing
and would cancel the show. After divorcing in 1975, both Sonny and Cher tried
and failed to launch solo comedy-variety shows. They revived their show
together briefly in 1976 and 1977. Cher went on to a successful film career,
winning the Best Actress Oscar for Moonstruck (1987). Bono later became
a politician, serving as mayor of Palm Springs and a U.S. congressman.

August 1, 1981

MTV launches. MTV:
Music Television goes on the air for the first time ever, with the words
(spoken by one of MTV’s creators, John Lack): “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and
roll.” The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” was the first music video to
air on the new cable television channel, which initially was available only to
households in parts of New Jersey. MTV went on to revolutionize the music
industry and become an influential source of pop culture and entertainment in
the United States and other parts of the world, including Europe, Asia and
Latin America, which all have MTV-branded channels.

In MTV’s early days, its programming consisted of basic music videos that
were introduced by VJs (video jockeys) and provided for free by record
companies. As the record industry recognized MTV’s value as a promotional
vehicle, money was invested in making creative, cutting-edge videos. Some
directors, including Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Three Kings) and
Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), worked on music
videos before segueing into feature films. In the 1980s, MTV was instrumental
in promoting the careers of performers such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince
and Duran Duran, whose videos played in heavy rotation.

By the late 1980s, MTV started airing non-video programming, geared toward
teenagers and young adults. Its popular reality series The Real World
launched in 1992 and was followed by such highly rated shows as The Osbournes,
Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, Laguna Beach, My Super Sweet 16 and
The Hills. MTV also debuted animated series including Beavis and
Butthead and Celebrity Deathmatch, as well as documentaries, news,
game shows and public service campaigns on topics ranging from voting rights to
safe sex. MTV developed a reputation for pushing cultural boundaries and taste;
the airing of Madonna’s 1989 “Like a Prayer” video is just one famous example.
In 1984, the channel launched the MTV Music Video Awards, which were followed
in 1992 by the MTV Movie Awards. Today, MTV’s music-video programming is
largely confined to one show, Total Request Live.

In 2001, Stewart was named the third most
powerful woman in America by Ladies Home
Journal. In 2004, she was convicted of lying to investigators
about a stock sale and served five months in prison. Stewart began a strong
comeback campaign in 2005, with her company returning to profitability in 2006.

She became one of America's
most beloved comic actresses, is born near Jamestown, New York. Her father, an
electrician, died when Ball was two. By age 15, Ball had decided to attend
drama school and become an actress. However, the shy, skinny teenager received
little encouragement and was rejected at least four times from Broadway chorus
lines before finally becoming a chorus girl in 1926. In 1933, she was hired as
the Chesterfield cigarette girl and was featured in all the company's
advertisements. Attracting attention with her Chesterfield ads, she finally
began playing bit parts in Hollywood movies in 1933. By the late 1930s, the
starlet had graduated to comic supporting roles. In 1940, she met Cuban
bandleader Desi Arnaz while shooting Too Many Girls. The couple married
the following year.

Ball continued to land movie roles that didn't fully
showcase her talent. Frustrated, she turned to radio and starred as a ditzy
wife in My Favorite Husband from 1948 to 1951. CBS decided to launch the
popular series on the relatively new medium of TV. Lucy insisted Desi be cast
as her husband in the TV version, though the network executives argued that no
one would believe the couple were married. Desi and Lucy performed before live
audiences and filmed a pilot, convincing network executives that audiences
responded well to their act, and CBS cast Desi for the show.

I Love Lucy
became one of the most popular TV situation comedies in history, ranking in the
top three shows for six years and turning the couple's production company,
Desilu, into a multimillion-dollar business. Ball became president of the
company in 1960, after she and Desi divorced. She also starred in several other
"Lucy" shows, including The Lucy Show, which debuted in 1962
and ran for six seasons, and Here's Lucy, in which she starred with her
two children until the show was cancelled in 1974. A later show, Life with
Lucy, featuring Lucy as a grandmother, was cancelled after only eight
episodes. Ball worked little in the last years of her life. She died of
congestive heart failure in 1989, at the age of 78.

CHILD OF TELEVISION @ iTunes

Pre-ramble

I represent the first generation whom, when we were born, the television was now a permanent fixture in our homes. When I was born people had breakfast with Barbara Walters, dinner with Walter Cronkite, and slept with Johnny Carson.
Read the full "Pre-ramble"